Thorax, 1979, 34, 447-453
Structural alterations to the pulmonary circulation in fulminant hepatic failure ADRIAN WILLIAMS, PETER TREWBY, ROGER WILLIAMS, AND LYNNE REID From the Department of Experimental Pathology, Cardiothoracic Institute, London SW3 6HP, and the Liver Unit, Kings College Hospital, London SE5, UK ABSTRACT Like patients with chronic liver disease, those with coma due failure may show arterial hypoxaemia even in the absence of pulmonary
to fulminant hepatic complications, and in both it is attributed to increased intrapulmonary arteriovenous admixture. This study is concerned with the structural alterations in the pulmonary circulation of patients who have died from fulminant hepatic failure. Precise quantitative morphometric techniques applied to the injected and inflated lung have shown the major abnormality to be a diffuse dilatation of the pulmonary vascular bed affecting arteries and veins of all structural types. At an intra-acinar level the diameter of arteries accompanying respiratory bronchioles was 232-97 ,um (+SD 46 35) compared with 177-76 /m (±SD 3043) in controls (P
Structural alterations to the pulmonary circulation in fulminant hepatic failure ADRIAN WILLIAMS, PETER TREWBY, ROGER WILLIAMS, AND LYNNE REID From the Department of Experimental Pathology, Cardiothoracic Institute, London SW3 6HP, and the Liver Unit, Kings College Hospital, London SE5, UK ABSTRACT Like patients with chronic liver disease, those with coma due failure may show arterial hypoxaemia even in the absence of pulmonary
to fulminant hepatic complications, and in both it is attributed to increased intrapulmonary arteriovenous admixture. This study is concerned with the structural alterations in the pulmonary circulation of patients who have died from fulminant hepatic failure. Precise quantitative morphometric techniques applied to the injected and inflated lung have shown the major abnormality to be a diffuse dilatation of the pulmonary vascular bed affecting arteries and veins of all structural types. At an intra-acinar level the diameter of arteries accompanying respiratory bronchioles was 232-97 ,um (+SD 46 35) compared with 177-76 /m (±SD 3043) in controls (P
